Update: October 21, 2009 (see below)
Two interesting issues come out of a long, detailed Kansas City
Star
article yesterday about Missouri political consultant, and recent
house speaker,
Ron Jetton.
A recent New York Times
article concerns a potential conflict in the city council speaker's
office. But what is most interesting about the article is the bigger
question it raises
about differentiating between businesses and unions in pay-to-play laws.
Once again, a local government official's attempt to use a charity to
get around campaign finance laws has blown up in his face. According to
an
article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, an Atlanta council
member was fined $25,000 by a state court for failing to register a
foundation (named after himself) and failing to maintain financial
records for it.
Both times Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley has had criminal
charges brought against him, the counts included perjury charges for
omissions on disclosure forms (2008
charges, 2009
charges). Is this the best or even an...
DuPage County, IL, a county of
nearly a million people just outside Chicago (its largest town is
Naperville), is juggling two ethics ordinance revision processes, one
for the county, the other for the county election commission. Both
appear to have attracted some controversy.
Some news in Greensboro, NC led me to a blog post on old news in
Greenburgh, NY, so here's the new news and the old news about two
cities with nearly the same name.
In Greensboro, NC, a council candidate has thrown down a challenge to
fill out and post online the state financial disclosure form. It's not
quite appropriate, since all its references are to the state, but it
does require a good deal of...